Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-02-11
PILLARS OF SMOKE.
A Line Of Blood to Be Traced Through
the Church History Of Nine
teen Hundred Years.
Those Slain for Christ Mus: Be Counted
by the MilliOns-N0 Land
Without its Martyrs.
Every Out-and Ont Follower of Christ Must
suffer Persecution-Symboi of the
Trensfigured Smoke.
Special to the Gazette.

as the annual rev letting has lust oc-
Cured ana many have changed places
This church combines the two plans o!
pew rental and free church. The rented
psws this year yielded an advance on all
previous yeSrs, 50 that the income viii
be about S32 GOO. But about 2000 sit.
tings are always kept free, so that nc
Oue mly complain mat he cannot worship
here for lSCk Of means. This morning
Professor Browne rendered an organ
solo, First S0nata il D minor by Ritter,
and the Congr, CATION sang the hymn:
Our 61r. oar help in ages past,
Our hCps for Years TO come.
The subject Of the sermon was "Pillars
of Smoke, - and III; text was taken from
SalOm ms s5Gg, iii: "Who is
this tina clme;h out Of the wilderness
like pillars Of smoker DR.. Talmage
said:
The architecture OF The smoke is
woadrous, whether God with His finger
curls it into cl1ud, or rounds it into g
dome, or points 1t in g spire, or spreads
it in q wing, or, as in the text, hoists it
in & pillar. Watcn 1t winding up from
the country farmhouse in the early morn
ing, showing that the pastoral industries
have begun; or see it ascending from the
chimDeys of the city, telling of the homes
fed, the factories farming out valuable
fabric, the printing , resses preparing
book and newspaper, and all the 10000
wheels CT work IN motion. On 8 clear
day this vapor spoken of mounts with
| such buoySncY and spreads such a de-
licate veil across the sky, and traces
such graceful lines Of circle and semi
circle, and waves, and losses, and sink,
and scars, and scatters vita such aflI-
euce of shape, and color, and suggestive
ness, that II you have never noticed it
| you are like L man who has all his
life lived in Paris and yet
never seen the Luxembourg, and all his
l5fe in Rome cpd never seen the Vatican,
aud al his Etc al LgCkport aud never
! seen Niagara. F0rty-four times the Bible
| speaks q the SMOKE, and ills about time
tnat somebody breaches sermon recOg
I nizirg this strange, weird, beautiful,
ela>tlc, charming. terrti; and fascinating
vzPor. AcroSs. TIE Bible eky floats the
snake Of Sga9, the smoke OF Sodom, the
s1seke of Ais.the smoke of the pit, the
| stpo k eset tfe ,yolcaaie hills when God
t0ucf;cS taem, and in my text the slori-
GUS Church OF God Coming up out of the
wilderness Ike pillars of slnOSs.
In the first place these pillars of smoke
in my text Indicate the gSuf ring the
Church CT God has endured, What do
nearby the Church? Imeanrot building,
not n sect, but those who IN all ages and
all lands and Of ell beliefs, AOve God and
are trying to 90 right. For many CEN
turtles the heavens have been bfesk with
the smoke of martyrdom. If set side by
SIDE you could eirdle the earth with the
fires Of persecution. ROwland Taylor
burned ct Hadleigh, Latimer burned at
Oxford, John Rogers burned a. Smith
field, John Hooper burned at Gloucester,
John Huss burned at Constance, Law |
renee Saunders burned at Coventry, Joan |
of Arc burned at Rouen. Pr0testants |
have sometimes pointed to the Catholics |
as prosecutors, but both Protestant and |
Catholic have practiced Infamous cruel |
ties. The Catholics during the reign of |
Hunneric were by Protestants put to the |
worst tOrtures, stripped of their clothing, |
hoisted in the air by ulleys with weights
suspended from their feet, then let down,
and ears and eyes, nose and tongue were |
amputated and red hot plates OF iron
were put against the tenderest parts of
their bodies. George Bancroft, the his
tOrian, says of the state OF Maryland:
opened to Pro.est4nts mass might
priest or bishop might utter his faith in
a voice Of persuasion; no Catholic might
teach the young. II q waYWard child Of
q Papist would but become sn apostGte,
the law wrasted for him from his parents
g share of their property. Such were the
methods adopted to prevent the growth
81
cfafE tffes hist brian, says: "Such priests
as were permitted to reside in Ireland
were required to be registered, and were
kept like prisoners at large within pre-
scribed limits. All Papists exercising
ecclesiastical jurisdiction, ell monks,
friars and regular priests. and all priests
were banished from Ireland
under pain of transportation and, on re-
turn, of being hanged, drawn and quar-
tered"
Catholicism as we'll as Professionalism
has had its martyrs. 1t does seem as if
when any one sect got complete domi-
nancy in any land, the devil Of persecu-
ton and cruelty took possession of that
sect. Then see the Catholics after the
iuguenots. See the Gentiles after the
lug ard fire lighted at the bottom of the
Dit, and $50 Jewish victims were con- l
;umed. See the Presbyterian Parliament {
If England, more tyrannical in their treat 6
nent of opponents than had been the s
criminal courts. Persecution against the I
tptists by Pedo-Bsptists. Persecution
If the Established church against the
Methodist church. Persecution against {
he Quakers. Persecution against the 5
Under Emperor Diocle !
ian IA, 900 Christians were passscred, 1
nd 700, 900 more of them died from ban l
shment and exposure. Witness the sui
erings of the WadeDses, of the Abb u
,enses, of the HISTORIANS. Witness st.
massacer. Witness the ?
Duke of Alva driving out of life
S 900 Christians. Witness Herod, and '
zero, and Decius, and Hlldebrand, and Il
'orquemada, and Earl of Montfort, and l,
ord Claverhouse, who when told that he 1
aust give account for his cruelties said: II
i have no need to account to mao, and p
; for God will take him in my Own c
ands." o
red line runs through the church his 4
DRY of 1900 years. line Of blood. Not ;
Y the hundreds Of thousands but by the d
billions must we count those slain for
'hrist's sake. No wonder John Milton v
ut the grosns of the martyrs to an i'm u
lortal tune, writing:
verge, Lord, toy slaughtered saints whose ',
bones u
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains ccld. d
The smoke of martyrs homes and mar u
7rs' bodies if rolling up all st once would e.
ave eclipsed the MONDAY sun and turned h
lie brightest day the world ever saw into g
midnight. "Who is she that cometh up T
ut of the wilderness like pillars of 81
noke?" Il
Has persecution ceased? ASK that b.
Dung man who is trying to be 8 Chris fl
an in store or factory where from b,